Honoring veterans in a downtown that has seen better days

The Wendy's fast food restaurant on Palisade Avenue in downtown Englewood closed about six months ago after the landlord asked for a rent increase the franchise owner considered exorbitant. The building across the side street -- once a Victoria's Secret -- has been empty for years.

Close to a dozen stores are vacant on both sides of the street along a four-block stretch of Palisade Avenue, above and below. 

Continental Army reenactors making some noise during the Memorial Day Parade in Englewood today. The parade seemed shorter than in past years. A rumor circulated that morning showers forced cancellation of the annual event.

Englewood's Grand Avenue was on the retreat route followed by Gen. George Washington after British troops crossed the Hudson River and scaled the Palisades.

Monday's parade included drum corps, above and below.

Englewood's EMS squad.

City police officers and firefighters led the parade.

The parade began at the monument and turned left on Dean Street.

One of the classic cars in the parade was this chopped and channeled Mercury passing City Hall.

-- VICTOR E. SASSON

Defense attorney, U.S. senator in Englewood parade

Famed criminal defense attorney Frank P. Lucianna (with white hair, center) marching today in Englewood's Memorial Day Parade arm in arm with U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (hidden). The Englewood-born Lucianna is 91. See Page 1 of The Record today for a lame Herb Jackson column on Booker that suggests voters should decide whether to reelect the Democrat based on his record as Newark mayor, not what he's done since he succeeded the late Frank R. Lautenberg in the Senate.

The annual parade along Palisade Avenue passed City Hall, above. Participants included members of churches in the city, public and charter school students, Civil War and Revolutionary War reenactors firing their rifles or muskets, and overweight middle-age men riding and revving their loud motorcycles.  

The Englewood Corps of the Salvation Army.

Students from Dwight Morrow High School, above and two photos below.

A supercharged Auburn boat-tail speedster.

Clueless Kelly should visit Englewood real soon

A week ago, in a column on the front page of The Record, burned-out Staff Writer Mike Kelly compared downtown Hackensack unfavorably to Englewood and other towns, which reportedly "bustled with new businesses." But the reality is far different, as these empty storefronts on Englewood's Palisade Avenue show, above and below. 

This empty retail space is on the ground floor of a luxury apartment building.

All of the empty storefronts are on Palisade Avenue or on a side street, and all are within one block of each other. And there are others on both side of the railroad tracks that divide Englewood economically and racially.

In recent years, The Record has virtually ignored downtown Hackensack, Englewood and Teaneck, in favor of stories about Ridgewood, Tenafly and other wealthier towns. And the newspaper has never explored the impact it had on Hackensack's Main Street when it abandoned the city where it had prospered for 110 years. Kelly, of course, never mentioned The Record's departure in his Hackensack column.

In  today's Memorial Day Parade, the Englewood Police Department Honor Guard marched past a Palisade Avenue storefront that remains empty more than a year after Victoria's Secret closed (not shown).

Accuracy isn't a priority at (201)

Image via Wikipedia
Actor John Travolta misses Baumgart's.

The glossy (201) magazine -- Publisher Stephen A. Borg's pet publication -- appears to be as poorly edited as The Record of Woodland Park.


Three embarrassing corrections appear on Page 20 of the February 2012 issue.


But the whopper appears on Page 66 of the current "BEST OF ISSUE."


This is the magazine feature where readers are polled on the best restaurant food in Bergen County. For the first time, celebrities are asked for their picks.


On Page 66, a photo of Englewood native John Travolta appears next to a quote from him:


"When I shoot Gotti, I'm going to go back to Englewood and stay there. I'll go to Baumgart's. I'll visit Palisades Avenue and the malls in Bergenfield. Home will always be home."


When is the last time Travolta or the editors of (201) have been to Bergenfield? And that should be "Palisade Avenue," not "Palisades."


Allowing readers to vote on the best restaurants is unreliable.


That's how, in polling for the Best Mexican Restaurant, the Americanized food at Blue Moon Cafe gets picked over the authentic, made-from-scratch fare at Rosa Mexicano in Hackensack (Page 62).


And that's how, in polling for the Best Barbecue, the crappy meat at Cubby's BBQ Restaurant triumphs (Page 63).


The magazine is filled with upbeat stories about wealthy Bergen County residents, and the women who appear in ads and articles often have artificially enlarged lips or breasts.

Drumming up business for the Borgs?

Image via Wikipedia

In one of his last posts on The Record's Second Helpings blog, Food Editor Bill Pitcher appears to solicit business for a wine bar in which his bosses, Stephen and Jennifer Borg, may still have an interest.


In an item Monday, Pitcher wrote that Teresa Guidice, one of the "Real Housewives of New Jersey," was to sign copies of her book that night at Grand Cru, a wine bar in Englewood. There is no mention of whether the Borgs are still investors in the wine bar, which was once featured in the food pages with a disclosure of their role.


Grand Cru is just down the street from Solaia Restaurant, which is owned by businessman Michel Bittan. He reportedly had a relationship with one of those Russian spies who were in the news recently. 

The Record's Giovanna Fabiano was unable to get a comment from Bittan, nor does she seem intent on disclosing his holdings and influence in Englewood's struggling Palisade Avenue business district.